The birth of an Assassin; successor of the Mugai-ryu

Shindou; a male born on June 9. Purple eyes and black hair. The night that he was born on was calm, not even one cloud could be found in the sky and the full moon lightening up the earth completely. Although, these times only lasted for a short moment. The birth of Shindou was, like any other birth, a miracle, but this miracle was slightly different. Shindou was born with the potential to become a skilled swordsman, without his parents nor himself knowing it, until a certain time.

It all started at the age of 7.

Mysterious person

Shindou, now age 7, continues to live his life without any suspicions about him possibly being able to be an Assassin. Although, this was to be expected. No one would expect themselves to be able to become an Assassin without being told. From the depths, a mysterious man approached the village where Shindou was living. It was a pretty stormy night, the wind carried some twigs from the trees around the area as the moon was covered around dark clouds and the rain dripping down upon the ground creating puddles of water. With each step that the mysterious man took, his feet landing in the puddles of water causing the water to splash up, he approached Shindou's residence. At that time, Shindou was already laying in bed, as he was tired from living through yet another day. His parents, however, were sitting downstairs on the couch, talking to each other like a just-married couple.

The parents only had a few lights on in the house, the rain dripping upon the window and making a noise every time it does so. The mysterious man continued to approach the residence; a flash of lightning occuring, revealing the shadow of the man upon the wall within their house, the parents of Shindou living through a shocking experience, and seemingly their last. The window completely shattered apart because of the man as he stepped inside of the residence and held a katana next to his side, the only trait of him able to be seen are his piercing red eyes, as if he was able to completely look into their soul. As he approached the parents, the katana got dragged along with him, the tip of it leaving a trail on the floor. The parents were shaking somewhere against the wall, in front of the window. However, Shindou, who was sleeping upstairs, slowly woke up from the sound of shattered glass, his eyes widened as soon as he realized what the noise was. Still shaking, his stepped out of his bed and slowly, walking on his toes, walked down the stairs to assess the situation. As soon as he looked around the corner into the living room, he noticed the shattered glass laying upon the ground and witnessed the death of both of his parents; the mysterious man raised his katana and made two successive strikes, the blood of Shindou's parents scattering around the place, upon the walls and ground. Shindou his eyes completely widened this time; it seemed like they were unable to reduce back to normal size. When the man looked over his shoulder to observe Shindou's reaction, Shindou stumbled backwards because of the sight of the man's red eyes, not knowing what to do.

Shindou ran towards the kitchen in order to search for something to use as a weapon, of course the kitchen would be the most logical place, since that's the place where they keep the kitchen knives. He opened a drawer and took one of the kitchen knives without hesitating which to take. Without closing the drawer, he instantly turned around and didn't notice anyone in the entrance to the kitchen yet. Slowly but surely he moved towards the corner, to see where the man went. As soon as he moved around the corner, Shindou's purple eyes and the man's red eyes meet, for a moment Shindou was trembling in fear, but quickly pulled himself together. By instinct, he took his stance and spun the kitchen knife around in his fingers. Nothing like this had ever happened before, not to Shindou at least, but that's what's interesting. His assassin instincts were taking over, his eyes turning more serious and his trembling stopped. This is originally what the man came for; a pure blooded Assassin. In an instant, Shindou launched an attack at the man with the kitchen knife in the position for a slash. Of course, without any experience, the man dodged easily and grabbed Shindou's wrist, throwing him into a wall and the kitchen knife falling next to him, stuck into the ground. Slowly the man walked towards Shindou and grabbed him by his collar, throwing him over his shoulder and jumping out of the window that he previously shattered, possibly heading towards his hideout. Shindou's consciousness faded as he still had no idea what was going on. All he could think of right now, was the death of his parents.

Instincts of an assassin

After reaching the hideout, Shindou woke up on a bed, as he quickly sat up, remembering the events that previously occured, instantly remembering the death of his parents. Instead of shaking in cowardice, or crying like he didn't know what to do, his eyes narrowed themselves as a sign of anger, hatred towards the person who killed them. He grasped the sheets of the bed, hearing footsteps entering the room that he was currently located in. As he looked to the side, he noticed the piercing red eyes. For a moment, Shindou's eyes widened and instantly narrowed again as he jumped off from the bed and dashed towards the person with his fist held backwards in preparation for an attack. Easily, the person simply kicked Shindou, making him fly backwards against the wall and landing back upon the bed. Right now, Shindou's face showed a sign of slight pain. The mysterious man took a chair and placed it in front of Shindou's bed, as he himself sat down upon it. He took this time that Shindou was in pain to explain what was happening to him and why he killed his parents. The reason was that, because of Shindou's assassin instincts, he could become a great asset to the assassin world. Shindou couldn't believe a word, although that would explain why he suddenly stopped fearing after his parents got killed. The man also explained that he was a master of the Mugai-ryu; a katana style that existed for decades, and that he wanted Shindou to learn that katana style. Before Shindou accepted the offer, he vowed to kill the man as soon as he was ready for it, in order to avenge his parents. The man simply smiled, not even giving a response before he walked out of the room saying that Shindou had to prepare for his training for the years to come and meet him in the training area of his hideout.

Preparations complete, Shindou heading out to the training area... If he only knew where the area was. He ran through the halls of the hideout and eventually entered a long hall with doors on each side. It would take too much time to look through all of them at a slow pace; maybe this was part of Shindou's training. Shindou closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, trying to focus on what he had to do in order to find the training area. As soon as he released his breath, he opened his eyes and dashed forwards. Using his speed, he opened door after door, going from side to side after each door that he opens and taking a quick look inside to see if it was the training area. It was like it was all planned, since the last door was the training area; the man standing in the back of it, his piercing red eyes locked upon the doorstep, waiting for Shindou's arrival.

Shindou simply stepped inside of the area, closing the door behind his back as the man tossed a katana at him. With his reflexes, he caught the katana's sheath and strapped it around his waist, the katana feeling pretty heavy, but he needed to get used to it. The man slowly approached Shindou and then dashed at him to give Shindou a knee in the stomach, telling him to never let his guard down, not even for a moment. The moment that the man gave Shindou a knee in the stomach, it felt like his internal organs were going to get crushed. His eyes widened as he reached for his stomach and fell to his knees, looking up at the man with angered eyes. As soon as he pulled himself together, he reached out for the katana's hilt and unsheathed the sword, launching an attack at the man, but just like usual, easily dodging the attack. The man sighed, jumping backwards to create some distance. Shindou just kept looking at him with his angered eyes and dashed at him once more, attempting multiple slashes at the man, but once again the man easily dodging all of them.

This training went on for weeks, until Shindou finally managed to get a hit on him. Although it was only a slight hit, it was still a hit. The man was glad to finally see some progress in Shindou's training. This would mean it was time for Shindou to learn some of the Mugai-ryu's secrets.. The techniques and stance.

Path of the Assassin: Akaritori

9 years later, Shindou now being at the age of 16, had finally obtained his own katana and was ready to go on assassination missions. Thanks to these missions, the people had started to call him 'Mugai', meaning Skylight, referring to the katana fighting style that he mastered. Time and time again, he got the requests to assassinate people. Not once did he refuse, as it was part of becoming stronger. Throughout the years, Shindou developed a strong will, which prevents him from fearing to die, also a great asset to be an assassin. Together with developing that, he also developed an other side to him. A normal person and a manslayer, in other words an assassin. Everyone hated the assassins, both the mysterious man and Shindou. For years, the people who lost the ones they cared for to the assassins, tried to trace their location, and eventually succeeded. The people arrived at their hideout, Arechigakure, with weapons such as axes and katana. Shindou and the man both stepped outside with their katana in the sheath. There must've been a hundred men now standing in front of them. Shindou took one deep breath, seeing as he had never faced this many people before. The man, with the piercing red eyes, took one quick look at how Shindou was preparing, then looked back in front of him. Both of them got into their fighting stance as if they were just about to draw their swords, but didn't perform that action yet. All at once, the hundred men ran towards the two of them, at when they were at a decent distance, Shindou and the man drew their swords in an instant and cut down multiple opponents at once. This carried on for a while, the blood swirling around and landing upon the ground, on other people's their bodies and on their own skin. They had succeeded, the man and Shindou now stood there, Shindou breathing rather heavily, but the man not breathing that heavily at all.

Shindou, who looked at the man from the corner of his eyes. He turned towards the man, lifting up his katana, telling him to raise his katana as well. He was ready to challenge the man, despite the situation they had recently been in. The man couldn't help but smile at the moment that he too raised his katana. However, shortly after they had both raised their katana, they both sheated them again and took their stance for Iaijutsu, the art of drawing the katana. This technique would end the life of one or multiple opponents in an instant, of course depending on where you aim. This suspence was ongoing for a while, until the first bit of rain started to fall upon the earth and hit the ground. At that moment, both of them dashed forwards with their 'battle cry' and instantly drew their katana and the sound of clashing katana being heard and echoing throughout the entire area. Blood spew from the man's body as Shindou's shoulder had only been slightly cut. Shindou, breathing heavily, looked over his shoulder at the moment that the man fell down to the ground. Slowly he walked over to him and lowered himself to the ground, listening to the man's final words...

"It seems that... hesitation is my worst enemy.. Who would've thought that I... would be the one to hesitate killing you. You have to.. Live on.."

With those words, the man's head fell to the side and he closed his eyes. The rain continued to fall down upon the sky as he stood up and left the man's body laying on the ground. As soon as he stood up completely, he looked up at the sky, the rain falling upon his face, thinking about the training that he had here, always remembering it, so that he, like the man wanted, could live on without any problems.

Beginning of a new life; 1 year later.

Shindou, a man that still appears to be sixteen, but in actuality is seventeen. He continued living on in Arechigakure, within the hideout of his sensei, day in day out still honing the techniques of the Mugai-ryu that his sensei had passed down upon him. Whether he would continue being an assassin as Akaritori, or just a regular person trying to be peaceful, would only be able to be told by time.

Mugai-ryu
This has both normal Kenjutsu techniques and Iaijutsu techniques (Art of drawing the sword). Mugai-ryu Iaijutsu's curriculum helps the people who use this style to achieve a sense of distance.